“I’ve run the numbers a hundred times,” she said. “ChatGPT told me I need to invest over $100k a year to retire with a million in 3–4 years. That’s impossible.” I looked at her situation. $140k salary. Zero debt. A partner earning $100k. $240k household income with almost no obligations. And she was paralyzed… because a calculator told her NO.
“The math should not make sense,” I told her.
She stared at me like I’d lost my mind. But here’s why I said it: When I hit my first million in four years, the math didn’t math. My income went from $90k to $160k — nothing extraordinary. If I had stuck to the numbers, every financial model would have said “impossible.” But I didn’t rely on models. I relied on movement. I bought two rental properties in 18 months while having two babies. I moved to Thailand. I started a business. I learned crypto from people who had already made the money I wanted to make. A spreadsheet couldn’t predict rental income. Or business revenue. Or crypto gains. Or the skills I built that later made everything explode. And that’s the part most people never understand: Calculators only project the life you already have — not the one you’re about to create. When a 20-year-old becomes a millionaire on TikTok, the math looks insane. When my friend makes a million dollars in six weeks from a course she built four years ago, the math is insane. When one random person at a meetup teaches you something that changes your entire net worth trajectory, the math is—again—insane. That’s because math tracks the past.
Wealth comes from who you become next.
Your Current Self knows your current opportunities, your current income, your current skills, your current network. Your Future Self knows none of those limits. Millionaires don’t spreadsheet their way to wealth. They leap. They build skills the calculator can’t measure — skills that change rooms, conversations, and opportunities. They make decisions FAST. They move before they feel “ready.” They act in 72 hours instead of 72 months. Yes, I tracked my expenses for two years. But not to budget. To study myself. To build discipline. To understand my patterns so I could change them. Most people never get past the data. They think the spreadsheet is the plan. The spreadsheet is just a mirror. The plan is the person you’re becoming. When I moved to Thailand, people said I was reckless. When I invested $200k in coaching, my friends said I was being scammed. When I quit medicine, people said I was “lucky.” None of these decisions made sense on paper. But they made sense to the version of me I was stepping into.
So here’s what I want you to do:
Close the calculator. Stop asking for “exact numbers.” Stop trying to make millionaire math work on your current identity. Instead ask: Who do I need to become so that a million dollars feels inevitable? What skills does she have? What risks does she take? What rooms does she put herself in? What decisions does she stop obsessing over?
Become her.
And the money won’t have a choice — it will follow. Because wealth isn’t about perfect math. It’s about becoming a person who can’t help but create money. Stop doing math. Start evolving. What leap are you avoiding because the numbers don’t make sense?
Unconventionally yours, Sam
P.S. The woman on that Zoom call? She joined my WealthRx program. Six months later, she’d paid off $69k in debt and invested over $100k. The math still doesn’t make sense. But her bank account doesn’t care.